by M. D. Cooper
As she struggled with Zlata, Amanda saw projectiles fly overhead—originating from behind the squad and realized that they were surrounded. Zlata fired another shot, this one hitting Amanda in the right eye, which cracked but did not shatter.
“Not going to be enough,” she muttered as she got her left arm around Zlata’s throat and planted the palm of her right against the hard Link port at the back of the lieutenant’s head.
A second later, Zlata went limp. Not from lack of oxygen or blood, but because Amanda initiated an emergency shut down of the woman’s Link.
Sure enough, her suspicions were confirmed. Zlata had been under remote control.
Amanda piggybacked on the signal that had been used to control the lieutenant and reached into the minds of the crew attacking the Marines.
Once in, she triggered shutdowns of their Links.
“Cease fire!” she called out to the Marines.
The sounds of concussive pulses, kinetic impacts, and electron beam discharges ceased and Macy had her Marines sound off, while beneath Amanda, Zlata suddenly struggled in her iron grip.
“What…who.... What’s happening?” she asked.
“Round them up,” Amanda ordered. “Everyone off the Link, now!”
The Marines fanned out into the corridors where the confused crewmembers of the Hellespont were calling out in fear and concern.
Amanda hoped there had been no fatalities in the exchange. Though it had lasted less than a minute, it took only seconds for beamfire to tear through a human.
“What’s going on?” Lieutenant Zlata demanded once more. “Avatar Amanda? Why are you restraining me?”
“What do you remember?” Amanda asked as she rose and helped Zlata to her feet.
“I…I’m not sure,” Zlata replied. “Everything seems hazy.”
“Understandable. You’re subverted.”
A stunned expression washed over Zlata before she finally managed to say, “I can’t help but notice that you didn’t use the past tense there.”
“Noticed that, did you?” Amanda asked as Macy approached.
“Looks like seven casualties,” the Staff Sergeant reported. “One fatal. Theirs not ours. Most of the poor bastards weren’t even armored. We tried not to make kill shots….”
“I understand,” Amanda said. “I have only severed their Link access. The Hellespont’s crew is still subverted. Lock them down and we’ll proceed to the maintenance bay.”
“Sorry, Zlata, that means you, too,” Amanda said and directed the still-dazed woman to follow Macy. It was entirely possible that Myriad could send some other signal to the subverted crewmembers and re-activate them. Lockdown packs would ensure that they were no longer a threat.
“What’s going on down there?” Ylonda’s voice came over the ship’s audible address systems. “You dropped off the Link, but I did see the crew attacking you.”
“Subverted,” Amanda replied. “You need to pull off the Link as well.”
“Damn,” Ylonda replied and Amanda wondered how likely it was that she was actually talking to Ylonda. “OK, that’s easier said than done, but I’ll separate as much as I can.”
“OK,” Amanda replied. “We’re close to the maintenance bay, we’ll have eyes on the situation shortly.”
Once they were back on the move, Amanda flushed her own nanoprobes out, no longer able to rely on the Marines’ probes now that they were un-Linked. The Marines appeared to be unperturbed by the lack of Link, she knew they trained to operate as low-tech as possible; never knowing when a situation would demand it.
Her probes reached the bay’s entrance, and she sent the nanoscopic robots around the edges of the door, curious about what lay within.
Her nano caught a brief view of the bay before their connection to Amanda was terminated.
“Class N1 Infestation,” she stated calmly, and saw several of the Marines shake their heads in dismay.
N1 was serious. Typically meant the entire ship was infected and would need to be scuttled.
Amanda reviewed the images her probes had sent back the instant before they shut down. It was very different from what the ship’s sensors and cameras showed. She had a hard time even making out Elena’s ship, it was shrouded by sinuous strands of fiber that reached out to various points in the bay, drawing power, and tapping into every ship system.
Bob may not get to have his conversation with Myriad, Amanda thought to herself.
“Staff Sergeant Macy, get a fireteam through an airlock and out to the bay’s doors. Let’s open them up and excise the heart of this cancer.”
“Yes, Avatar Amanda,” Macy replied smartly and passed the directions to a fireteam.
“Think we’re going to have any more visitors?” Macy asked Amanda once the team was on its way.
“There are still another dozen crew on this ship,” Amanda replied. “It’s safe to say that they’re all subverted, but sending them at us would be futile.”
“I’m alone on the bridge,” Ylonda’s said. “Should I come to you?”
“I think that would be wise,” Amanda replied. “What about your nodes, are they safe?”
“I’ve severed myself from them, I don’t know,” Ylonda replied. “I have to assume not. We should probably purge them and all other systems once you get rid of that ship.”
“Probably,” Amanda nodded.
“We should fall back,” Macy advised. “Once they blow that door, I’ve ordered them to call for a plasma burst.”
“You’re worried about Zlata’s volatiles?” Amanda asked.
“Always worried about stuff exploding violently when you fire plasma at it,” Macy replied.
“Seems sensible,” Amanda nodded and followed Macy as the Marines fell back behind an interior blast bulkhead within the ship.
“Just got a drone from the exterior team,” Macy reported as they closed the blast doors. “Using old keys like you said. They’re in position. Doors are locked down, so they’re going to blow them. Should go in about fi—”
An explosion shook the ship, followed by the sounds of explosive decompression coming from down the corridor.
“Well, that was a bit early,” Macy grunted. “Jenny never can wait for the full countdown.”
Amanda pulled the feed from her nanocloud and realized that inner bulkheads of the maintenance bay must have been cracked. Interior pressure doors weren’t closing and before long this section of the ship would be in vacuum.
Vacuum didn’t bother her, but she could only go for twenty minutes without air. Amanda took several long, deep breaths, configuring her lungs to draw out and store extra oxygen.
“Avatar,” Macy spoke up. “Those crew we locked down, they’re going to suffocate if we don’t seal off those corridors.”
“Wait for the plasma…” Amanda cautioned.
“We may not be able to tell when it hits,” Macy replied, then a second explosion shook the ship and Amanda gave the Marine a smile.
“Looks like we’re clear.”
“Stars, what are you doing to my ship?” The voice came from behind them.
Amanda rose and turned to see Ylonda approach as Macy sent a fireteam to seal bulkheads between the decompressing area and the rest of the ship.
“Hopefully nothing more,” Amanda replied. “Elena’s ship, and the mess it brought with it, should be gone now. We’ll have to go inspect, of course.”
“Did you hit it with plasma?” Ylonda asked, her eyes wide.
“Well…I didn’t,” Amanda grinned.
Ylonda frowned, and Amanda examined the captain’s expression. Ylonda was an AI, a child of Jim and Corsia, who lived within a cybernetic body. Even so, she used a consistent set of expressions—expressions which appeared subtly different at present.
It was possible that Ylonda was reacting to the stress of the situation, but Amanda wasn’t certain. She would have to probe Ylonda’s mind to be sure the AI was not subverted, or was even herself, but not yet. It was still too soon to r
eveal her suspicions.
“Come,” Amanda said as she walked back toward the maintenance bay, noting that the sensors on her artificial epidermis registered rapidly decreasing atmospheric pressure.
She rounded the corner and heard the sound of hissing air before she spotted the crack in the bulkhead.
“Give them another minute and they’ll have this area sealed off,” Macy advised. “How long can you make it without air, Avatar?”
“Long enough,” Amanda replied. No need to let Ylonda know exactly how long she could make on her reserves.
Two of the Marines approached the entrance to the maintenance bay and opened the manual release compartment. One cranked the release lever, while the other pulled at the door. With a groan still audible in the thin atmosphere, the door slid into the bulkhead and the last of the air in the corridor rushed out.
The wind pulled at Amanda, but she reached out and grasped Macy’s arm to keep steady.
Once the air had vented, Amanda stepped forward and peered inside the bay to find it completely gutted. The plasma shot from the I2 had burned away Elena’s ship, its connections into the Hellespont, and much of the bay’s deck and overhead. Portions of the level below were visible through melted—and still glowing—sections of deck plate.
Amanda reconnected to the ship’s network and sent Ylonda a message over the Link using an old set of encryption keys, a test to see if Myriad still remained onboard.
Amanda leapt back as filaments of nano streaked from Ylonda—now Myriad’s—body in the vacuum and touched the Marines.
Shit! Amanda thought as she watched the Marines’ armor seize up.
Amanda would have barked a laugh if she hadn’t sealed up her lips and nose against the vacuum. A warning flashed over her vision, and in her mind, reminding her that she now had fewer than ten minutes of oxygen remaining.
Wispy filaments flowed out from Ylonda’s hands, darting through the vacuum toward Amanda.
Amanda raised her hands and splayed her fingers, throwing an EM blast toward the approaching nanocloud, disabling many of the nanoscopic bots, and disrupting the communications of the remainder. She then directed a second EM pulse directly at Ylonda.
The AI’s body was hardened, and Amanda knew the pulse wouldn’t do any real harm, but it may disrupt the production and release of more nano.
Myriad flung Ylonda’s body forward, raining a fury of blows on Amanda. She was able to block them, but she knew it would not be possible for long. Even though her epidermis was incredibly durable, underneath she was mostly still flesh and blood. Ylonda’s body, on the other hand, was steel and carbon-fibre.
Ylonda managed to grasp one of Amanda’s wrists, and she could feel enemy nano seeping through the joints infiltrating her body. In the blink of an eye, she and Myriad waged a nanoscopic war within her forearm, one that Amanda narrowly won before she twisted around to get her wrist free, snapping it in the process.
She ducked behind one of the frozen Marines—Macy, it turned out—and pulled out her pulse pistol. She fired seven shots at Ylonda, slamming the AI’s body into the bulkhead, and then out into the ruined maintenance bay.
Amanda lost sight of Myriad and stepped around Macy’s body searching through the dimly lit depths of the bay, ready to fire, when Myriad lunged out of the darkness and grabbed her again.
Pain seared through her mind as Myriad crushed her wrist, then tore her entire hand off. Amanda felt her blood pressure drops as red fluid sprayed out of her arteries into the vacuum, freezing into tiny pellets within instants.
Desperate, she fired point-blank into Ylonda’s body, but the AI didn’t let go. Her vision swam, as much from the loss of blood as from the nanoscopic attack on her body.
She was near losing consciousness, and knew if she did, Myriad would storm through her mind, seizing whatever she wished. Already the not-AI was pressing at the edges of her thoughts, trying to tear away her layer-by-layer, to tear away Amanda’s very self.
As her vision began to fade, she caught sight of something small and bright fly through the destroyed outer doors of the bay and hit Ylonda’s body.
Then everything went black.
* * * * *
Amanda… Amanda…
She felt, as much as heard, the voice in her mind
Amanda’s eyes snapped open and she saw Staff Sergeant Macy’s visage through the faceplate of the Marine’s armor.
“There you are,” Macy said with a smile. “I was worried for a minute there.”
Amanda felt a stabbing pain in her right hand and decided not to look at whatever was left of her appendage. It was being pulled about, which meant one of the Marines was probably sealing up the stump.
“Were you calling me over the Link?” Amanda asked.
Macy shook her head. “No way, I haven’t been on the Link since you gave the order to shut our connections down.
Realization dawned on Amanda. “Then she’s still here!”
“A lot of people are still here, but we need to get off fast. Admiral Evans sent word that they’re going to drop a nuke on this ship in twenty minutes. We’re rounding up the last of the survivors and getting them to the pinnace.”
“What happened to Ylo—Myriad’s body?” Amanda asked, glancing around. She saw that the Marines had erected an ES shield over the entrance to the maintenance bay. It was still dark within, but she couldn’t make out any body floating in the black.”
“I2 fired a targeted picobomb in there. It ate through Ylonda’s body like it was butter. Scared me shitless too, I thought we were all going to bite it, but then it just dissipated. RF signal came in from the I2 to clear out, so we grabbed you and that’s what we’re doing.”
“Picobomb…” Amanda whispered.
“Yeah, that’s about how I feel about it, too,” Macy replied. “Except when I said it there was a lot more cursing. Ben has your wrist wrapped up now, can you stand?”
Amanda nodded, showing more confidence then she felt. Still, with Macy’s help, she made it to her feet. She wondered how Joe had gained permission from parliament to fire the picobomb. Though maybe Bob had done it without gaining authorization...
“I hear it again, she is still here.”
Realization dawned over Macy’s face. “You mean Captain Ylonda? Where?”
A garbled burst of digital static came across the Link, followed by two words,
“Last node!” Amanda said aloud.
“What does that mean? Which is last?” Macy asked.
“I don’t know…” Amanda sighed. They’re in a matrix, none is really last.
“Maybe…maybe…. Yes!” Macy announced. “I know which it is. Follow me!”
Macy took off, and Amanda followed behind as quickly as she could, then teetered as a wave of dizziness overcame her. Suddenly an arm scooped her up—catching her before she fell—and she saw Ben’s face looming close.
“Not going to patch you up, just so you can collapse and die in here, ma’am,” he said.
“I appreciate
it,” Amanda replied before calling out to Macy, “Where are we going?”
“Last node that got installed,” Macy replied. “It’s three levels up and a hundred meters aft.”
“Do you think that’s what she meant?” Amanda asked.
“We have fifteen minutes before they blow this ship to atoms,” Macy replied. “We don’t have time to check more nodes.”
“What’s the rush?” Amanda asked.
“Because Myriad has helm control and she’s boosting on an outsystem vector!”
“You’re right,” a new voice said over the ship’s address system. “She is in there, clever of her, she’s tucked into a backup array. Probably just barely enough room in there, too.”
“Shit!” Amanda swore, wishing Macy had told her sooner that Myriad was still in control of the ship.
Macy and Ben picked up the pace, racing down passageways and scaling up ladder shafts. Amanda wrapped her good arm around Ben for dear life and prayed they’d make it in time.
When they reached the entrance to the node, it was sealed tight.
“I’ve got this,” Macy said as she patched a hard-pad into the door’s mechanism. “She’s locked it down, but these nodes have hard-coded emergency overrides. Just have to have the keys.”
“You’re all going to die in here with me,” Myriad said. “I don’t take any pleasure in it. I didn’t stop the rest of your people from leaving, but now it’s just us.”
“Everyone else left?” Amanda asked, panic setting in. There was a lot more she wanted to do with her life. Dying on a ship that got blown up by her own people wasn’t anywhere on the list.
“I told them to go at t-minus ten,” Macy said. “There are still escape pods. Plenty of time yet.”
Amanda bit her lip, ten minutes to extract Ylonda and get off the ship to a safe distance did not meet her definition of ‘plenty’.
“There!” Macy proclaimed as the door slid open to reveal the node chamber.
It wasn’t anywhere near as large as Bob’s nodes, mostly because Ylonda wasn’t a true multi-nodal AI. For her, the nodes functioned as extensions of her mind that augmented her processing power while functioning as backups should the ship take damage.